Sioux Falls Zoo & Aquarium launches fundraising campaign for major improvements

An effort to raise $50 million starts officially this month for the Sioux Falls Zoo & Aquarium, which would include bringing a new aquarium and butterfly rainforest to the zoo’s campus.

The multifaceted project also would include an education center added to the building.

“We continue to think through the best use of our space here, and knowing we’re renovating the building, what is the wisest use of our dollars,” said Audrey Otto-Pepper, chief operating officer of the Sioux Falls Zoo & Aquarium, which is the name for the merged Great Plains Zoo and Butterfly House & Aquarium.

“We’re going to have quite the building here once we’re done because it will include education, administrative space, aquarium, butterflies, the gift shop and admissions, so it’ll a big complex when you arrive.”

It’s also a big project — estimated at $60 million — and fundraising aims to focus on $50 million at this point. Half of that will come from a donation by philanthropist Denny Sanford. The Sioux Falls Zoo & Aquarium is focused on raising $20 million currently, with $1.3 million as part of the Greater Sioux Falls Chamber of Commerce Community Appeal, which runs through March 31.

The overall concept “is very close to what’s been presented in the past,” Otto-Pepper said.

That includes a 25,000-square-foot aquarium that will include a large shark reef with a tunnel through it — “that iconic experience you have at big aquariums, as well as another large viewing window,” she said.

“We’ll have a gallery with corral exhibits as well as a gallery with a ‘tentacle tangle’ with jellyfish and octopus.”

The design also calls for a a new home for the zoo’s popular Humboldt penguins, which will create an entirely new habitat for them.

“The exhibit will have a deeper pool where it is more visible, so you can see the penguins swimming underwater to create a more immersive experience,” Otto-Pepper said. “There will be an area where we have sand play that is right next to where the penguins are, so the idea is a nose-to-beak experience with glass between the penguins and the child, so the kids can play on the sand, and the penguins can come up on the shore.”

There will be a behind-the-scenes area for special visits with the penguins, where visitors can meet and touch them.

To put the new aquarium in context, the largest one at the Butterfly House & Aquarium at Sertoma Park is 2,000 gallons. The shark exhibit in the new aquarium will be 350,000 gallons.

“It’s just taking us to a whole new level,” Otto-Pepper said. “Honestly, it’s indescribable.”

All the marine life living at the existing aquarium will move to the new one, she said.

Additionally, the Zoo & Aquarium has determined that the best area for the new butterfly rainforest is on the south side of the building, so as you walk through the main plaza entering the zoo, it will be a glass feature to the right.

At 4,000 square feet, it will be slightly larger than the existing Butterfly House, “but we will model after a Costa Rican rainforest,” Otto-Pepper said. “We have many species from Central and South America, and we will re-create that space with taller trees and more foliage.”

A waterfall will be a focal point of the space, harkening back to Falls Park.

“We really want to incorporate the local landscape into it to pay homage to Sioux Falls,” Otto-Pepper said.

The project also could include more to see beyond butterflies.

The current butterfly house “has a pretty simply filtration system, so we have native turtles and koi in the pond,” Otto-Pepper said. “This new construction will allow us to have more animals native to the Amazon rainforest.”

The education center will add about 10,000 square feet to the building and replace an all-purpose area currently used for education. The Butterfly House & Aquarium uses a storage room as a classroom, “and we’re always overflowing,” Otto-Pepper said.

“This new education space will allow us to serve exponentially more kids in the summer.”

There will be two general classrooms and a specialized one focused on marine education opportunities that will include even high school and college students.

“And the space can be opened up to serve larger groups, including events and rental spaces, so that allows us to broaden what we can do,” Otto-Pepper said.

The project is in design now, which is estimated to take 12 to 18 months, so “ideally, we’ll be starting construction in early 2026 so we’re opening by the end of 2027,” she said.

If the Delbridge Museum taxidermy collection is retained by the zoo, the master plan calls for the mounts to be displayed in a separate building elsewhere on the campus. The city of Sioux Falls has issued a request for qualifications and interest in the collection, with a submission deadline of Dec. 12.

Here’s a closer look at the integration of the zoo and aquarium and the master plan: